Salon owner shows the community amore

During the holidays, examples of giving are everywhere: the Salvation Army in front of a store or Toys for Tots signs filling business windows, for example.

Tracy Anderson, owner of Amore Salon and Spa with her husband, Devon, knows the giving spirit of the holidays. Aside from running two salons, Anderson spends her time perpetually devising her next opportunity to lend a hand.

Anderson founded her nonprofit, the Amore Fire Fund, in 2008. The group runs fundraisers and takes donations throughout the year to establish a general fund of about $5,000 available for when fires happen.

Since it began, the organization has helped 14 families move on from devastating fires, providing food, clothes and shelter. The group has reached out to veterans facing hardships in life after service and helped feed homeless people.

According to Anderson, she has taken a tragedy and turned it into a triumphant turnaround in how she views the world and her ability to share her resources.

In 2008, Anderson nearly lost her building two weeks before opening to an arson fire, a total loss of $350,000. A suspect was caught on camera setting the fire, but prosecutors said the case lacked evidence and suggested Anderson take it to civil court.

Instead of sinking money into a lawsuit, she decided to spend it in a more constructive direction.

“I had already lost so much,” Anderson said. “I would rather invest in my community.”

Amore had already been in operation for years, but after the fire, it was the community that invested in Anderson. She said family, friends and community members piled into the burned building with paint and building supplies to help her overcome the fire damage.

“I could get up or stay down. Just to see the community and people who came to rebuild this place,” Anderson said. “It brought us all closer together.”

Since 2008, the group has grown from a post-fire response effort to a communitywide resource.

In the last year, Anderson has focused her effort on providing aid to several different groups. She led Amore in the Pink Event, where stylists donated time, services and wigs to cancer patients recommended by an oncologist. The Fire Fund, which works with the Red Cross, paid for a mattress for someone who had lost a home to a fire.

Last week, Shari Neubauer, director of fundraising for the Amore Fire Fund, challenged the employees to generate as many presents for Toys for Tots as possible in 24 hours. Within a day, the 30 employees had brought 40 presents.

“I wouldn’t be able to do any of it without my team,” Anderson said of her staff.

Anderson doesn’t take all the credit for finding the causes receiving donations from Amore. There are five people, including Anderson, on the Amore Fire Fund board that decides how to direct funds. For those who aren’t the board, Anderson has made it part of the job to bring a charity or cause to the table.

“It’s got to be special to them,” Anderson said. “We do it because it’s the right thing to do. It heals you.”

Her daughter, Alicia Hodges, is also a stylist at Amore. A former military member, her cause is the Wounded Warrior project.

Anderson said ideas often come from clients. It’s an intimate relationship, she said, something where she’s actually touching someone within minutes of meeting them, unlike an doctor or therapist.

Jeff Fulford, a makeup artist and esthetician at Amore for four years, said it’s those vulnerable moments that open people up to talk about the troubles in their lives or the world.

“We don’t even know when we’re touching someone, you hear some things that make you think, ‘I probably wouldn’t share that,’” Fulford said. “We’re a family here and the clients see that so they’re comfortable.”

Anderson has created this culture of giving and discussing how to help anyone at her two Amore locations. She said she might have always been this generous, but that generosity didn’t shine through quite like it has since the fire.

“I had it but I didn’t embrace it,” Anderson said. “I had great faith, but I was given more faith through the fire.”

This year’s raffle will help build up the Amore Fire Fund for the upcoming winter season. The raffle winner, to be drawn on Dec. 18, will receive the white tree, ornaments, lights and presents donated by Amore clients and staff. The whole package is currently on display in the Amore foyer.

For more information on Amore or to pick up raffle tickets, visit amore-salon.net or call 755-5513.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.